Blizzard discusses Diablo III experiments with 360-like controller

Blizzard has dropped another hint that Diablo III could be heading to consoles. While the company has yet to officially confirm or deny that the Lord of Terror will be manifesting on an Xbox 360 or other device, game director Jay Wilson said Blizzard has been experimenting with new control schemes. And the developers liked what they saw.

“One of the reasons why we’re exploring the idea of a console version of Diablo 3 because we feel that the controls and the style of the game lend itself to a console,” Wilson said in an interview with PC Gamer. “With some of our early experiments in putting a direct control scheme into the game via a 360-like analogue controller, I’ve been ‘Oh this feels even better, with direct control…’”

Blizzard has said before that it's “very, very serious about bringing the Diablo III experience to the console,” and the latest talk with PC Gamer seems to support this theory. If they get serious enough, maybe they'll actually tell us what they're doing hiring people forconsole-related positions on the Diablo III team” — we have at least one theory.

If (or when) they do bring Diablo III to consoles, there's no need to worry that PC gamers will be left behind. Wilson assured everyone that he “can pretty much guarantee that if we decide to do a console version that we will look to support a pad on the PC.” Support for a pad or not, the idea of playing Diablo on anything but a keyboard or a mouse still seems suspect to us. Wilson did say that a controller “feels even better” though, and he's the professional.

Sep 22, 2011

Source: PC Gamer